Brain Game: Standing on the Podium

We hope you aren't too sleepy from watching the Olympics to enjoy today's mentalfloss.com Brain Game Wednesday Wordplay challenge. Good luck:

By changing one letter in each step to form English words, and leaving all other letters in their original positions, convert EARNS into MEDAL in the fewest possible steps.

E A R N S
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
M E D A L